Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

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Vieille chanson

Introduction

This song is among the more conservative delights of the first recueil. Its suggestions of the charms and gallantries of the ancien régime are beautifully etched; one is reminded that the composer’s grandfather would have lived in the reign of Louis XVI. Bizet has found an old-fashioned style to fit the poet’s epoch, a gift shared by Schubert when setting eighteenth-century verse. It is the most significant song to be written before the outburst of song-writing that was to occur in 1866, and it shows the composer’s legendary skills as a pasticheur at parties, improvising at the piano. It also shows his feeling for the voice and an unforced vocal line, and his ever-so-slightly amused affection for the courtly cadences of a past century. The musical depiction of the ‘fauvette’ (‘song-bird’) as a coloratura diva-influenced singer with a line in gently tripping semiquavers is a charming touch from Bizet’s own epoch. The poem is sexually suggestive in a gentle manner (without resorting to open ribaldry), and the music is faintly reminiscent of Mozart’s Dans un bois solitaire.

Recordings

'A most attractive addition to the song library, finely recorded and invaluably well documented' (Gramophone)'I could rhapsodize about every one of these songs; they all enchant. Immensely enjoyable—a CD that will make repeated visits to my player' (Fanfare, USA)» More

Amorous Myrtil in the woods
once caught a merry song-bird;
“Lovely bird,” he said,
“I’ll give you to my shepherdess.
As a reward for this gift,
the kisses she’ll give me! If Lucette
gives me two for a posy,
for a song-bird there’ll be ten!”

The song-bird had left in the dale
its faithful friend,
and so escaped the prison
as swiftly as it could.
“Ah,” said the anguished shepherd,
“farewell, then, to Lucette’s kisses!
My whole happiness has flown away
on the song-bird’s wings!”

Myrtil returns to the nearby woods,
weeping the loss he’d suffered.
Whether by chance or by design,
Lucette was also there;
and, touched by this pledge of faith,
she slipped from her retreat
and said: “Ah, Myrtil, be of good cheer –
it’s only the song-bird you’ve lost!”